Two years ago today, I registered circumcisionandhiv.com, .net, and .org in disgust over the newest cause celebre of the Aids industry, claims that circumcision prevents HIV infection. Within 48 hours, this site was born. We, among the intactivist community, knew this day was coming because the usual suspects had made claims for years before funding was obtained to conduct random controlled trials. I think we were ill-prepared to meet the newly RCT backed claims head-on. Nonetheless, we have slowly responded as well as a purely grassroots movement can.
I was of two minds when I got this thing going. On the one hand, I toyed with the idea of fronting a purely science-based critique. Slowly, I began to realize that such an approach was virtually impossible to mount. It is one thing to argue that adults are ill-advised to rely on removal of skin from their penises for protection from HIV. It is quite another to confront the hidden agenda of shoring up neonatal circumcision in the United States, let alone exporting the practice to every health care weak point on the globe.
Circumcision is the most psychologically complex surgical practice ever introduced. Only female circumcision approaches the psychological confusion it engenders in its victims. And so, my other considered approach was a full on attack on the practice, regardless of its practitioners justifications, along all lines, whether policy, practical, scientific, or psychological.
We have settled into a middle ground somewhere between the two.
While we deny that circumcision, even in its now state of received knowledge, has any place in HIV prevention, where better proven, more effective means are already available, we accept that adults are masters of their own bodies and can choose to submit to the surgery with full knowledge of the detriments. Meanwhile, we assert that a child's human right to physical inviolability, the human right of all individuals regardless of age to be free from medical treatment without consent unless necessary for his or her immediate health and welfare, and the inherent right of all people to physical autonomy, must not be abrogated under lesser circumstances.
The fight against the male variant of circumcision looks to be a struggle that will continue beyond the lifetimes of most of us. As such, we need to be mindful that we have to measure our success in a variety of ways. Each child saved is a success. Each person who understands our position is a success. Every time we come out with our belief in these principles among people who may not share them, we have achieved something. The very fact that a Google search or a Yahoo! search returns our views from a variety of different sites and sources is a victory.
My heartfelt thanks to all who come here to read what we write, and then some to those who comment.
